Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A. D. Winans on Jack Micheline





Jack Micheline, pictured above with jazz legend Charles Mingus, was one of the great unsung poets from San Francisco in the later half of the 20th century. A. D. Winans, another small press poet from SF of considerable renown, remembers his friend in this fine three part article, here (part 1), here (part 2), and here (part 3).

Here is the write up on Micheline from The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, along with a few poems. For more poetry by Jack, check out the webpage for his Selected Poems. From that page, comes the following touching piece, composed with fellow neglected Beat poet, Bob Kaufman:


Poem For The Children Of The World

A child walks in a dream
Her eyes dance in the night of stars
Someday when the moon is full
The gypsies come home
They will come home forever
And all the boats that never sailed will sail forever
And all the flowers that have not grown will bloom forever
A child walks in a dream
And all the stars that have not shone will shine forever
And all the children that could not dance will dance forever
A child walks in a dream

Jack Micheline and Bob Kaufman



Thanks to Ron Silliman for pointing to the original posting.


best, Don

4 comments:

  1. Yep, that's pretty much what it's like to be a kid. I miss those days.

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  2. Charles, yes, something endearing about these two crusty old beat poets getting childhood just right ...

    Don

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  3. I met A. D. online after we both had poems published in Barnwood. I liked his poem and e-mailed him about it. We had a nice few conversations and I bought some of his books from him, some pretty rare, I think. It's good stuff. Ahd his work still has an eye on politics.

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  4. Good guy ... he's published occasionally in Lillie. A small press icon ...

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